X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
During this time, many studios found a huge demand on superheroes that they can do as little effort as possible while maximizing profits. This age is called as ralphthemoviemaker said it “The Dark Ages”. Therefore, we have all these disasters like Spider-man 3, Punisher: War Zone (well, this is actually hilarious), Green Lantern and more. And X-Men Origins: Wolverine is no different from any of those I just mentioned.
Fox were thinking of doing a series of origin stories starting from their most profitable character, Wolverine, and continued on to make more with Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto), Charles Xavier, Jean Grey and so on until every single character have their own solo movie.
My Verdict - - - 3/10 (I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
When many would say X-Men Origins: Wolverine is definitely the worst in the franchise, that doesn't stop our enjoyment. Of course, we cannot look past the poorly written dialogues that the actors had to work with, the bland-ass protagonist (yes, Wolverine isn’t a very interesting character in all honesty) accompanied by some of the sloppiest editing choices AND some very, *ehem* questionable special effects they ended up leaving in the final cut that will surely make anyone cringe. Anyone watching can tell the studio wanted nothing but your 15 dollars from your savings account, hoping to trick you to see something so epic only to be disappointed after the first 15 minutes. And boy did we prove them wrong.
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
This is, no doubt, one of those movies you would totally play on your TV with your mates and some good, cold beer on your hand. And I myself didn't felt like I wasted another 2 hours of my life. In fact, I actually make good use of it by laughing off every 5 minutes or so. Definitely a movie I would recommend everyone to see. Even my dead great-nan would have a chuckle or two.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
To not anyone's surprise, their first origin/solo movie tanked hard, making origins one of the least profitable movie in the series (ironic when you know he is the face of the franchise). So all of their so called "origin movies" were all scraped and they decided to fuse Erik’s origin story with the early days of Xavier and his first batch of students. In return, they not only killed the era of "The Dark Ages", not only revived the franchise to something that what people loved about the X-Men, but also made so much more money than that $5 bargain bin no one wanted to talk about.
My Verdict - - - 7.5/10
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
X-Men: First Class has finally captured the true essence of the X-Men films that has been missing for the past 5 years. They retained the focus back to the basics on what it means to be a mutant and why they can become the "better man".
The film reintroduced me to the stars of the film as their younger selves, who's none other than Xavier and Erik. Because of their different backgrounds and their upbringing, Xavier and Erik were very different people with extremely different ideas and beliefs despite both being a good person at heart. And throughout the film, when they crossed paths, it's so interesting to see the two fighting each other, albeit verbally and physically to protect their own people. It's such an amazing approach to let the audience sympathize and understand both protagonist despite their differences.
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
If someone were to ask me which X-Men movie had the most memorable moments, I would definitely point out to First Class. From the levitating submarine to the most mundane parts like Xavier asked Mystique to stay and "adopt" her as his foster sister, all resonates with me far longer as I could recall them easier amongst the rest of the films. Now that is an accomplishment that is worth celebrating.
One of the few things people complained about is the poor budget to back up for the special effects, makeup, unknown actors, set design, you name it. However, in my personal opinion, having a tighter budget let the crew members to be more creative with what they were given. They took this as an opportunity to create a compelling narrative about two men finding their purpose in society so that you will overlook those budget restrictions. Great job Matthew Vaughn!!! Annnd great job to you team.
The Wolverine (2013)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
After many "supers" films these studios has pumped out of their asses for some time, they finally had found their footing on what works and what doesn't. The "superhero formula", if many would like to call it, had affected many movie studios, including 20th Century Fox, to capitalize on the genre by putting as minimal effort as possible. If you don't follow this formula, your movie will be doomed to fail financially. Keep in mind, this is the era when Marvel's The Avengers just came out a year ago, a movie that should of been doomed to fail but proved everyone wrong. Why? Because it tried to be fun and goofy, embracing it's comic book roots. Unlike movies like Green Lantern, The (not really) Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance were all forgotten after a trip back to the parking lot after a movie night.
My Verdict - - - 4/10
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
I wrote my review of X-Men: Days of Future Past before this. And this totally says a lot about this piece of mediocrity. I personally would rather sit through X-Men Origins: Wolverine again if I had the choice. At the very least those terrible moments are MEMORABLE and I sometimes bring it up in conversations with friends as a punchline. What kind of impact did this movie left inside my head? Nothing!!! And let me tell you something. I would rather make "enjoyable" terrible movies after terrible movies "something Neil Breen has mastered" than doing this for a paycheck. And even if I am tight on my savings, I would still think twice about it. Just imagine for a second how amazing would it have been to have screenings still playing till this day, an conference solely letting you talk about your movies with fans in a international CON, merchandise, a online fan-base who genuinely respects and adored your work, whether good or bad. Wouldn't that make you acknowledge you have achieved some sort of life accomplishment? Like Neil Breen and Tommy Wiseau? Think about it. Oh my God, I haven't even started my review on Wolverine yet and I rather watch a documentary of an actual Wolverine on cable.
*sigh* ALRIGHT, let's start with what I enjoyed. FECK!!! I couldn't even recall one. Errr...err... Oh here's one. The setting in Japan is a very nice change of location instead of doing the story in America AGAIN! Err... Some of the shots, the way they filmed, color graded is pretty darn eye-candy. Err... Yea I give up!
NOW we come to the fun part. Umm, do you guys know why they failed to make a Wolverine movie twice? ... Nope, not because of poor special effects of storytelling ( even though they are part of the problem). But because Wolverine is such a boring character since he never experience some sort of vulnerability or fear, key factors that makes us human. On top of all that, he seriously have no character whatsoever besides growling like an animal every once in awhile. So every time he gets shot or injured, though proven possible, doesn't matter at all since he could bounce back up in no time. He is not a character. He is simply a vehicle to drive the plot forward, just like the love interest. And even that is not very well-established.
Oww...yeaaa... Let's not start with...the...ADAMANTIUM EXOSEKELTON. Who? What? Who seriously thinks this is a good idea. This is actually dumb even by Bryan Singer's X-Men 3 standards. What's the point of doing the same sh*t again and not spicing up the trope, even just a little? At least a good example like Iron Man, the villain is a reflection of Tony Stark of what greed and power can corrupt a person to go as far as to literally STEAL Tony's suit design for his own benefit. And man, this climax is so boring that that's exactly what I just wrote while I'm taking notes.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
This is the big moment for the whole franchise as the studio brought their A-game to the table, including Singer back as the director, John Ottoman to bring back the iconic theme, and, nervously speaking, Simon Kinberg to write the script. They all decided to adapt the “Days of Future Past” comic to undo all of their continuity errors like William Stryker’s age between X-Men Origins and X2, narrative mistakes with the Phoenix story, licensing issues with Quicksilver and so on.
My Verdict - - - 9/10
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
I'm going to be jerking off the film's ballsack for 4-5 paragraphs straight. So excuse me while I went full-bias for this review. I might spoil a few things here and there just to keep you readers aware.
Anyway...
X-Men: Days of Future Past is Fox’s “Avenger’s: Endgame" before Marvel took that crown. Bryan Singer had totally done the impossible for making one of the greatest thing that had happened in the film industry. Juggling so many characters, emotional moments and comic book fun while somehow paid-off, creating not only such an amazing film, but also a great message about fate and not giving up.
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
I couldn’t tell either Fox decided to increase the budget for the film or they somehow hired the most talented people in the industry to do the best visual effects work in the franchise. Every elements on-screen, in motion or motionless, practical and/or computer generated, worked together hand-in-hand seamlessly to the point you didn’t question your disbelief. Thanks to all that, it helped the world-building to make it feel very raw and gritty, making you think this post-apocalyptic kind of scenario would definitely happen.
I would like to also talk about the cast of the characters. Every, single, actors/actresses on-screen gave their 100% from beginning to end. I could feel the urgency and sorrow when Kitty Pride was losing massive amounts of blood thanks to Ellen Page. I could feel the intense, emotional fight young Erik and Xavier were having in the plane thanks to Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. I could feel the sense of respect when old Erik and Xavier shook each other’s hands despite their long, cold history thanks to Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Mckelan. I could feel the frustration, anger, pain Mystique had inside her and she had every reason to pull that trigger thanks to Jennifer Lawrence. Not to mention all the rest of the mutants—Colossus, Blink, Iceman and others—screaming and fighting for dear life while being impaled, frozen, torched was one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie (until Logan showed up). All of these elements made me think this actually deserved an R-rating for how true-to-life the context of the movie is. Showing us not only mutants are dangerous, but we are just as dangerous to ourselves too.
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| Image by 20th Century Fox |
One of the most shocking thing I’ve noticed from this movie is how amazing the writing quality went up to top notch quality. Simon Kinberg set the stakes higher and he somehow found a way to make our invulnerable characters, well, vulnerable. Everyone were given some very good lines, helping to enable some of the main cast to show their true acting capability. And one of the worst movie plot device that a writer would use to hightail out from their inconsistencies, time travel. To be honest, this is one of those few movies that was able to use it to elevate the story instead of derailing it. Congratulations to you, Mr. Simon Kinberg.
And man the music. I didn’t know anything about film orchestral soundtrack but man, that is some great cinema scores to help people, who had their worst days, to fall asleep too, giving them a sense of hope for humanity. If you guys didn’t believe me, go to Spotify and listen to “I Have Faith in You - GoodByes ~ John Ottman”. The music flowed so well as Mystique is questioning her morality, pointing the plastic gun at her arc nemesis, who is destined to die.
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
This is one of those films that can be described as “lighting in the bottle” by some fans and yes, I completely agreed. Not only that, X-Men: Days of Future Past actually helped me to get through a short rough time when I was in college to never give up hope and always keep your head up for a better tomorrow. So I thank you again, Mr Simon Kinberg, for delivering a great story of misfits. Thank you Mr John Ottoman, for delivering such great scores. Thank you 20th Century Fox for taking one of the biggest risks that paid off the best way possible. And last but not least, thank you, Mr Bryan Singer, despite recent accusations, for enabling everything I just mentioned and turning them into the greatest wet-dream I never thought I wanted.
Deadpool (2016)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
Many of us had known this movie was in development hell for almost 10 years, maybe even more. They couldn't do it back in "05 because an R-Rated superhero film is too risky to at least be forfeited. New Line were in the middle of trying to sell of the rights.Ryan Reynolds almost gave up doing this project to the point he agreed on playing a version that couldn't even speak. Pretty sure you've heard or read them online somewhere. But hey, here we are. 2 Deadpool movies all thanks to a online leak from a anonymous uploader (I'm still suspecting it's Reynolds himself under an alias) Thanks to Deadpool, R-rated comic book movies are making it's way to the mainstream, selling like hot cakes. The once thought to be the impossible. Isn't that amazing?
My Verdict - - - 7/10
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
Well, even though I don't personally think this is an amazing movie, Deadpool is still one of a kind of a movie experience that I might only get once in awhile. There's really not a whole lot of characters who constantly break the 4th wall, spouting sassy references and nods to modern pop culture, acknowledging and playing along sarcastically of how terrible and over-bloated comic book movies have been in the past 10 years or so. And how many R-rated blood-bath, raunchy comedies can you name at the top of your head besides Kick-ass. Not a lot, huh? That's why Deadpool rocked the box office and will probably be talked about from time to time in conversations. Hilarious character, bad attitude. The best kind of "super" we need nowadays.
Ah yes, I'm so done with American action movies until I saw John Wick and this. Yea, isn't it weird that the cameraman couldn't figure out the best way to film a fast-paced fight sequence is to leave the camera on a tripod? Well, obviously easier said than done but it is true. Look at those Jackie Chan Hong Kong films. Not one, not a single one, I'm bored by the action spectacles or feeling a migrane after 2 minutes in. I don't get it when the stunt team probably knew how to film an interesting fight sequence but the camera man can't just keep his hands literally off the camera? So...great job stunt team!!!
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
To be completely honest, as much as I'm blown away from the movie, they also had their own sets of problems that many of these movies fall into. Sometimes I noticed they tried to present the same or similar jokes more than once and it does get old after awhile. Like T.J Miller (loved him in Silicon Valley btw) describing Deadpool's face looking like his nanny's diapers or something like that. It's cute, but not hilarious (at least to me). But if you tried to repeat it again and again, the joke would fall completely flat on it's face.
And speaking of irritating characters, they didn't really do enough effort to make the grandma and the main villain stand out from the ridiculous mundane 3-act structure. If anyone of you have seen this sleeper hit TV show called Doom Patrol, the saturday-morning mustache twirling antagonist was actually (SPOILER ALERT FOR DOOM PATROL!!!) self-aware that he is in a ridiculous TV show and trying to top his evil act every time for our entertainment is actually very original. I'm not sure what they did here that makes Francis unique compare to other cliche villains, but he is what he is.
So as a closing statement to Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Miller, the team and 20th Century Fox, thank you for making such a game changer and thank you, Mr. Reynolds, for still having faith with this project till the last second.
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
This is the best quote that basically summed up the movie from production and critical wise from producer Hutch Parker.
"It's always dangerous if your script is evolving while you're shooting. Certainly, in hindsight, we all feel like the genre has been evolving aesthetically and tonally and that the film didn't. There's a lot that I think is very good in the film but, as a whole, it was struggling to find ways to coalesce, narratively emotionally and in terms of plot. Aesthetically, it felt sort of dated relative to an evolution you were seeing play out everywhere else. We learned a lot from that."
Nuff said, this explains a lot from my review which you're going to read about.
My Verdict - - - 4/10
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
When I heard the news that Bryan Singer is sitting back on the director's chair again, I was sure that this is destined for greatness once more. He had proven himself many times that as long as he's sitting, the movie will turn a profit and the 7 dollar ticket is worth the experience. Boy did I receive the "slap across my face" treatment after the credit rolled.
Watching this movie was almost as embarrassing as finding out your favorite internet celebrity you idolize got his/her sex tape leaked online. Maybe not as embarrassing but you get my point. I was in awe, jaw dropped if I may add, of the terrible production quality from start to finish. Now I have no idea how to do their job but somehow this movie's production design felt "cheap and fake". The lighting sometimes looked good and sometimes looked like absolute crap especially in the outdoor scenes. The color grading was undeniably distracting and inconsistent when transitioning from one scene to the next for someone who usually worked on colors as their job. And man, don't get me started on the costumes because that too isn't consistent when you have Psylocke and Apocalypse with their comic accurate costume and everyone else still has the Singer's dark leather signature aesthetic. Like, was the Art Director drunk when he/she is doing his/her job?
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| Image via 20th Century Fox |
I watched some scenes in Days of Future Past just to be sure that my brain wasn't fooling me and noticed the reason that movie has fantastic production design is because they filmed most of the night scenes with strong color contrast, making them pop just enough, and the daytime scenes outdoors in low contrast, similar to how Marvel Studios color grade most of their movies. Besides that, they only used their visual effects when they ABSOLUTELY needed like making portals, animating the Sentinels, that iconic Quicksilver scene-stealer and so much more. And no, the higher budget is not something you should be blaming, but really more down to who's in control, creatively speaking. *cough* Studio demands*cough*.
There's a lot more to cover like the acting chops from everyone put me to sleep faster than Nightquil. This is not just from J.Law. Oh no. EVERYONE sucked except the 2 main leads, and maybe the Storm actress, who still gave a sh*t in this monstrosity. Their delivery and the dialogue that came out of their mouths were just as good as those early 2000s superheroes flicks Simon Kinberg has been writing for the past 2 decades. Who would want that in 2016?
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